[23] 



134 



I recommended that in the report of the bnilding committee to be 

 made to the board at th'-ir next meeting, it be proposed that they should 

 increase the appropriation accordingly. 



I examined, with a good deal ofcare, most of the churches that, have been 

 recently erected and are now in progress of erection in New York. They 

 are, as a general rule, very creditable to the architectural talent of the 

 country. Among those y«^t unfinished, one of the most promising is St. 

 George church, (Episcopalian,) situated at the corner of Sixteenth street 

 and Stuyvesant square, built in the same style as our building, namely, 

 in the Lombard style of the twelfth century. The general effect will, I 

 think, be very fine, especially of the front towers. The rear terminates 

 in an absis, somewhat similar to that on the north frontof our west wing — 

 a beautiful feature. The building when completed, it is said, will cost 

 one hundred and fifty thousand dollars; and though I could not obtain 

 its exact size, it will be one of the largest churches in New York, being 

 some ninety feet in width. Its galleries are to be supported from the side 

 ■walls, without pillars. Some of its details appeared to me faulty, as the 

 corbel course along the upper portion of its side walls and on its tov/ers is 

 feeble, and not sufficiently projecting for a building of such magnitude; 

 and I think the architect would have done better to trust to the flat Nor- 

 man buttress running into the corbel course above, rather than to intro- 

 duce a buttress of a much later date, deep and heavy, and which, from 

 many points of view, wholly conceals the windows. The latter (the win- 

 dows) are both wider and higher than is usual in the Lombard style ; 

 but I think the eflect is good. 



I purchased, and herewith submit, a perspective view of this church, 

 as one of the first proofs that the opinion 1 expressed when the style of 

 our building was objected to on the score of its singularity, (namely, that 

 a greater objection might hereafter be, that Lombard buildings would be 

 repeated all over the country, as Grecian and Gothic have been, until we 

 were tired of them,) is not unlikely to be verified. 



I visited also some of the older churches — among the rest St. Paul's, in 

 Broadway, near the Astor House. It exhibits great beauties and great 

 defects. Its spire is. In my opinion, one among the prettiest in its style 

 (the Roman) in the world; and as such, 1 had it daguereotyped, and shall 

 use it as an illustration in our work. The interior, with its Grecian pil- 

 lars and broken entablatures, forming imposts for the arches of its galle- 

 ries, furnishes a striking illustration of the bad effect produced by that 

 heterogenous mixture of Gothic forms and Grecian details that goes under 

 the name of Roman. 



Through the kindness of Professor Renwick, I obtained admittance to 

 the New York Society library, and spent some time there examining its 

 works on architecture. 



I also obtained, through Professor Renwick, an opportunity of exam- 

 ining Canina's great work on Egyptian, Grecian, and Roman architec- 

 ture, published a few years since at Kome. It may be said, in each style of 

 which it treats, almost to exhaust the subject — at least to furnish the best 

 and most extensive modern illustrations of Egyptian, Grecian, and Ro- 

 man buildings, to be found in any one collection now extant. As almost 

 all the works on architecture heretofore purchased by us have been on 

 Gothic and Norman architecture only, I think this work would be a val- 

 uable and important purchase. It is the property of a private gentleman, 



